The news that we had to go to another planet shocked everyone.
No one caused a commotion thanks to the armed soldiers, but some of the civilians had fainted.
Normally this would have been cause for an uproar, but the guards simply moved them aside and settled the matter.
Once the people were sorted and silence fell, the section chief gave another order.
“We’ll be departing soon, so before we leave, each of you is to receive your supplies.”
Where he pointed, stacks of supplies had been piled up.
The prepared supplies were different from what was expected.
Because of the strange training, I hadn’t expected firearms and military gear to be piled up like before.
But for the supplies to be small bags to carry and large backpacks?
There, bags and backpacks had been stacked according to the number of people gathered.
Staff Sergeant Ahn shook his head at the sight of the supplies.
“Just how long is this chain of incomprehensible events going to continue….”
I was thinking the exact same thing.
“Each person will carry two bags in both hands and one pack on their back.”
Everyone sighed at the section chief’s words.
They knew protesting was useless, but that didn’t mean they understood.
A few people who received the bags and backpacks checked inside, then clicked their tongues softly.
“It’s all combat rations and canned food.”
“There are some daily necessities like tissues… but mostly food.”
After the inexplicable distribution ended, we lined up in front of the altar.
People in gym clothes holding bags in both hands, with backpacks on their backs.
Even seeing it from where I stood in line, it was an absurd sight.
Once the formation was complete, the soldiers gave orders.
“From now on, you will mount the altar in order and enter the transport passage. There may be some dizziness during transit, but it won’t last long.
An advance party is waiting on the other side, so simply follow their instructions upon arrival.”
Still, many people were relieved to hear there was an advance party.
At least it meant someone had gone first.
But some people wore disappointed expressions.
Could it be because they wouldn’t be the first to visit that planet?
I had to admire their nerve.
Then, Staff Sergeant Ahn whispered in my ear.
“Sergeant Hyun, you’d find it hard to get out too, right?”
Seeing how things were going, Staff Sergeant Ahn had apparently been thinking of escaping.
I shook my head.
“It’s impossible. Not just here, but it was difficult upstairs as well.”
Due to my experience on operations, I had been checking the security since entering this base.
It was a place with formidable surveillance even on the surface, but my senses detected a far tighter net.
At least at corps headquarters level or higher.
This unit exuded a more dangerous aura than any operational area I had experienced.
“Certainly, the surveillance was extreme. I wondered why it was so tight, but they had hidden something like this underground.”
There was a relic underground in this base that could move people to a place tens of light-years away.
Excessive surveillance was only natural.
The others were extremely anxious as well.
But after even the unconscious people were forced to wear backpacks, no one protested anymore.
Even without protests, everyone looked like they wanted to bolt at any moment.
I was anxious like them too.
Contrary to what I’d told Staff Sergeant Ahn, the chance of escape wasn’t zero.
Coming down here, I could have created several escape routes.
But I didn’t intend to run.
Because I was feeling a different emotion right now.
*Here we go again.*
For the first time in a while, my heart was pounding.
Truthfully, a normal soldier wouldn’t repeatedly throw himself into life-threatening operations just for money.
Money was important, but I had another reason.
Some might say I was addicted to the dopamine that danger gives.
Others might say I was pickled in PTSD from the war.
But I would say this to such people:
That my heart pounded at the coming ‘adventure.’
Trembling with anxiety, people picked up their luggage and advanced toward the altar in turn.
Perhaps because it was the reverse of when we entered, Staff Sergeant Ahn and I ended up at the end of the line.
The civilians who came down later went up to the altar first.
Terrified people were pushed by the guards’ rifle muzzles and entered the circular hologram in turn.
Even when people entered the hologram, there were none of the flashy effects seen in movies or comics.
They simply disappeared.
What was absurd was that the backpacks and bags they’d been carrying remained where they vanished.
It was a preposterous sight, but the watching guards cleared away the backpacks and bags as if it were only natural.
Even more absurdly, some people disappeared leaving behind not only their bags and backpacks but even their clothes.
“Are those the clothes they were wearing?”
“They must be dead!”
Seeing that sight, someone tried to break from the line in terror.
They were immediately subdued by the guards.
The subdued individuals were moved aside, just like those who had already fainted.
Seeing them being separated off to the side, it seemed the unconscious people and those subdued just now had been properly checked off.
Even if they had been checked off, it would have been fine if they didn’t enter the hologram, but those people still had their luggage.
The higher-ups seemed intent on shoving all of us into the hologram no matter what.
Despite the disturbance, the guards kept pushing us into the hologram.
Those who gave up and entered, those who stepped in with expectant faces, even those who froze before the hologram and were forced in.
People disappeared into the hologram leaving behind various expressions.
“Not everyone leaves their bags behind, sir.”
“Oh, is that so?”
Staff Sergeant Ahn, who had been staring blankly at the altar, came to his senses at my words.
“Oh, you’re right. Another bag disappeared this time too.”
Every time someone vanished, the guards cleared away the remaining items.
By watching what the guards collected, I could tell what people had dropped.
Staff Sergeant Ahn was only now noticing, but I remembered everything the disappeared people had left behind.
This was the third time a bag had vanished—roughly one in ten people took a bag with them.
And six people had left their clothes behind so far; that was one in five.
It seemed like an important difference, but the watching technicians and higher-ups paid no attention to it.
*Just luck, I guess.*
If it wasn’t important, there was no reason to care.
I checked something else.
First, the teleportation hologram. As the section chief said, the hologram concealed people.
The guards clearing away items passed through the hologram constantly, but they didn’t disappear.
*It doesn’t seem like they’re using the relic carelessly….*
Beside the altar, foreign technicians and scientists were gathered, handling electronic equipment I had never seen before.
The hologram had appeared after they manipulated the equipment, and even now they were tinkering with it, attached to the devices.
They were definitely moving the altar using modern science.
That meant they knew the relic well enough to apply modern technology to it.
*Which means they’ve known about that relic for a long time.*
It was deduction from someone with no interest in math or science, so I could be wrong.
But thanks to that line of reasoning, I seemed to have grasped some kind of hint.
Just as my thoughts were beginning to stretch further.
The guards pushed me and Staff Sergeant Ahn.
It was our turn.
Three people remained, including me.
Behind me was Staff Sergeant Ahn, and in front of me was a girl who didn’t even look twenty.
It was absurd enough that a minor was here, but the girl herself was unusual.
Unlike the other civilians gripped by panic, she was glaring at the hologram with an expressionless face.
*She was an archery athlete, wasn’t she?*
I hadn’t seen her shoot a bow, but she was a student who had shown talent when learning the spear and other weapons.
Unlike me, she had properly learned martial arts for a week.
Even taking into account that she was a woman, she was a very useful asset.
The murderous intent in her eyes, unbecoming of a young student, was a bit off-putting, but in times like this, it would be more helpful.
Following the girl onto the altar, I heard my heartbeat. I must have been nervous too.
After conducting several near-death operations, I had never been nervous deploying, but this time was different.
*Because I’d never experienced such a nonsensical operation before.*
Of course, I was better off than Staff Sergeant Ahn behind me.
I could hear his body shaking.
The girl standing before me didn’t seem to be shaking in the slightest.
After casting a fleeting glance my way, she stepped into the hologram of her own accord.
Swoosh.
The moment she entered the hologram, like the others, she vanished, and her backpack fell to the floor.
*Did both bags disappear this time?*
It was the first time both bags held in both hands had disappeared.
The watchers’ eyes changed as well.
Both bags vanishing seemed to signify something different.
The fallen backpack was quickly cleared away, and it became my turn to enter the hologram.
The circular hologram before my eyes.
It looked like a magic circle from movies or comics.
*It might really be a magic circle.*
Though scientific equipment was attached to it, the hologram was operating as a relic.
An object that instantly moved to a distant star, incomprehensible with current science.
Of course, it could be tremendous science technology that we simply couldn’t understand.
*If it’s science beyond modern comprehension, it’s no different from magic.*
Recalling an adage I’d heard somewhere, I moved my feet.
My last step crossed into the hologram.
Flash.
Brilliant light filled my vision.
Light that was difficult to comprehend with reason.
Sacred. A light that felt forbidden to behold.
When I closed and opened my eyes, the light had already vanished.
The scenery had changed.
I was standing elsewhere.
A stone chamber similar to the one I had been in moments ago, yet somehow different.
I was standing on the central altar of that stone chamber.
Beneath the altar, people who had entered the hologram before me were gathered.
People gathered wearing only gym clothes.
Some were naked, wearing nothing but tattered scraps of leather.
Around the gathered people stood those holding spears.
Most of the spear-bearers were foreigners.
As I was surveying my surroundings, a surprised voice rang out.
“This person is wearing a backpack!”
It was the voice of a man holding a spear.
He was pointing his spear at me.
As he said, I still had bags in both hands, and a backpack on my back.
I was the only one here wearing a backpack.
At that moment, people’s gazes turned toward me.